Motorola recently released phones with awful update policies, but it the company may have found a loophole regarding EU update laws.<\/b>
\nMotorola recently launched several phones with no Android updates but five years of security patches in Europe.
This could be due to the company\u2019s interpretation of EU regulations regarding software updates.
It seems like the regulations don\u2019t actually force smartphone makers to offer software updates at all.
The European Commission introduced a variety of regulations for electronics that went into effect last year. One of these rules forces manufacturers to up their game when it comes to software updates. Unfortunately, it sounds like the EU\u2019s own wording has enabled brands like Motorola to actually offer phones with disappointing update policies.
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Motorola has launched phones in Europe, such as the Moto G17, which offer five years of security updates but no Android OS upgrades. This sounds sketchy, but IT Daily reported late last year that this could be due to the EU\u2019s own wording of the regulation.
The relevant bit of the EU\u2019s regulation reads as follows:
The key word above seems to be \u201cif.\u201d If a company provides any security patches, fixes, or feature updates to a phone, \u201csuch\u201d updates need to be available for free for at least five years. This differs from merely offering five years of regular updates, as it sounds like a smartphone maker can get away with no updates at all! There doesn\u2019t seem to be a requirement to update a phone in the first place (be it for platform updates or security patches). However, if an update is being offered, it should be available for at least five years since the phone was last officially on the market.
Finnish website After Dawn recently asked the relevant Finnish authorities about the interpretation of this regulation:
Unfortunately, the regulation doesn\u2019t seem to mandate an update, but only mandates their delivery if a company offers them in the first place. That could be bad news for future smartphones in Europe, as other companies might wise up to this interpretation and offer similarly disappointing update policies. Then again, a long update policy is a great selling point for brands like Google, Samsung, and others. So Motorola might be shooting itself in the foot with this practice.
Nevertheless, we\u2019ve asked Motorola and the European Commission for comment regarding this matter and for clarification of the interpretation. We\u2019ll update the article as soon as they get back to us. Either way, we hope the commission tightens up this regulation to offer more clarity for update commitments.<\/p>\n